LAS VEGAS — Alex Verdugo is the Dodgers’ top-rated prospect, a big-league ready player with an attractive skill set.

The same description applied to Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger and Walker Buehler over the past three years and each was brought to the majors and given a chance to establish themselves as big-leaguers. The results were two unanimous Rookie of the Year awards and a third-place finish.

Verdugo, however, has spent most of the past two years at Triple-A, making only sporadic visits to the Dodgers’ lineup.

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman says all the right, nice things about the 22-year-old outfielder. He has excellent “bat-to-ball skills, a great feel for the game, good instincts and ability.” But he is just one of eight outfielders who started at least five games for the Dodgers last season, all of whom are still under contract (or club control) for 2019.

That surplus – and the nine-deep starting pitching depth chart – are not likely to survive until spring training.

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“I’d be surprised if that were the case,” Friedman said, asserting that “they’re all talented enough where things will line up and make sense (in a trade), where it works out well for our team and an acquiring team.

“If the return didn’t work for us, we wouldn’t (make a trade just to thin the group). But I can’t see that happening.”

As the Winter Meetings opened Monday, Verdugo appears to be the most obvious piece around which the Dodgers are building a trade package that could land them either Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto or one of the starting pitchers the Cleveland Indians appear intent on moving.

A deal with the Indians appears more likely at this point. The Dodgers have been engaged in talks with the Indians regarding catcher Yan Gomes (who has been traded to the Washington Nationals) and now starting pitchers Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer.

The Indians have made it clear upgrading their outfield is a winter priority and they are willing to deal either Kluber or Bauer to do it. Payroll relief would be a side benefit.

Kluber would slide into the front of the Dodgers’ rotation, giving them a formidable trio featuring a three-time Cy Young Award winner (Clayton Kershaw), a two-time winner (Kluber) and a possible future candidate (Buehler).

Kluber has finished in the top three in voting for the American League Cy Young award in four of the past five seasons, including this year when he finished third after going 20-7 with a 2.89 ERA, a 0.99 WHIP and 222 strikeouts in an AL-leading 215 innings.

Although he will turn 33 in April, Kluber is a relative bargain at $17 million in 2019 with club options that would pay him $17.5 million in 2020 and $18 million in 2021 – or be bought out for $1 million either season if things don’t go well.

Bauer, meanwhile, is a more risky acquisition. The 27-year-old right-hander from UCLA was outstanding in 2018. He made his first All-Star team and finished sixth in the AL Cy Young voting with a 12-6 record and career-bests in ERA (2.21), WHIP (1.09) and strikeouts (221 in 175-1/3 innings). But Bauer’s track record is not as established as Kluber’s and he has a well-earned reputation as an iconoclast.

“He’s done everything he possibly can to show he’s more than ready for a lot of playing time at the major-league level,” Friedman said of Verdugo.

HEALTH UPDATES

Shortstop Corey Seager has “switched gears from rehabbing to training,” Friedman said, and he has begun running and throwing programs as well as doing some hitting.

Seager underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in May and arthroscopic surgery on his left hip in August. His rehab has featured no setbacks and the Dodgers are still optimistic that he will be ready to play at the start of the 2019 season.

Meanwhile, Kenley Jansen has resumed training after undergoing heart surgery two weeks ago to address last year’s recurrence of atrial fibrillation. It was Jansen’s second such procedure in the past six years.

“I saw him the other day. He looked great,” Friedman said. “He’s in a great frame of mind.”

Friedman said Jansen is expected to report to spring training in two months with no restrictions on his activity.

Bill Plunkett has covered everything from rodeo to Super Bowls to boxing (yeah, I was there the night Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off) during a career that started far too long ago to mention and eventually brought him to the OC some time last century (1999 actually). He has been covering Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register since 2003, spending time on both the Angels and Dodgers beats.